Bath will not worry about the style of their first win in Bristol for ten years after a derby match at Ashton Gate yesterday distinctly short of inspiration. Given the manner in which the leading clubs in the Guinness Premiership have been vacillating, any win will do and Bath remain hot on the heels of Gloucester and Leicester.

But they had to wait until three minutes from the end before Andrew Higgins scored the try - against his former club - that made the result secure. They have a game in hand, against London Irish in three weeks, on the top two clubs. Appropriately, Higgins's try came from the best move of a match in which the best efforts of both teams fell to ground.

Higgins appeared in the final quarter as the replacement for Matt Banahan and started the move, as well as finishing it after significant interventions by Michael Lipman and Joe Maddock. It also spared Bath's blushes because the three-point lead they previously enjoyed came from a penalty goal kicked by Olly Barkley at a time when he appeared fortunate to have been on the field.

Barkley, who leaves for Gloucester at the season's end, carried through a tackle on David Lemi as the Bristol wing grub-kicked through towards Bath's line, but David Rose, the referee, awarded a yellow card against Alex Crockett, who was also guilty of tugging Lemi's jersey. The blond centre departed to the sin-bin rather than the Bath goalkicker and shortly before Crockett's return Barkley kicked his fourth goal, from 41 metres, after Joe El Abd was penalised for an offside tackle.

“There was certainly a degree of obstruction...but it's the referee's call,” Steve Meehan, the Bath coach, said of a player whose consistency since his return from England's World Cup campaign has been remarkable, given the court hearing for assault that lingers over him. “I was surprised Olly wasn't in England's squad from the off, but that's a decision for their management. I've expressed what I would do if I were in his [Brian Ashton's] position; it's not the only change I'd make if I were in that position.”

The episode was typical of a match littered with errors and began a particularly unfortunate period for El Abd. The flanker had crossed the Bath line seven minutes earlier as Lee Mears threw long and deep in his own 22, but he was given offside and then conceded two more penalties before being replaced. Not that Bristol had any quarrel with the result, knowing that if Bath had taken all their chances they would have been out of sight by half-time.

“I think Bath are the best team in the country at the moment,” Richard Hill, the Bristol head coach, said, although he regretted the concession of home advantage for commercial considerations - Ashton Gate brought in 4,000 more than the Memorial Stadium holds. “We might have turned them over there, people don't like playing at ‘the Mem', so this was more like a neutral venue.” Hill was, though, supportive of his team's decision to go for the corner in the hope of a try after Crockett's departure to the sin-bin, which would have given Ed Barnes - already with three kicks from three - a relatively easy penalty attempt. “We scored two tries from driving mauls against Gloucester, another against Wasps,” Hill said. In the event, Sean Hohneck secured the lineout, but the weakened Bath defence held firm.

They, too, had crossed the line in the first half, but Maddock's pass to Michael Stephenson was forward. In the same period of play Daniel Browne was held up just short, but all too often Bath conceded territory with foolish penalties. Barkley's third goal erased Bristol's slender interval advantage and Bath, deprived of Danny Grewcock's services when the former England lock withdrew on Saturday morning after his partner went into labour, also overcame the loss of Andy Beattie with what may turn out to be a severe knee injury. It could prove a significant success by the end of April.

Scorers: Bristol: Penalty goals: Barnes 3 (10min, 19, 40). Bath: Try: Higgins (77). Conversion: Barkley. Penalty goals: Barkley 4 (9, 13, 49, 63).

Scoring sequence (Bristol first): 0-3, 3-3, 3-6, 6-6, 9-6 (half-time), 9-9, 9-12, 9-19.

Bristol: L Arscott; A Elliott (rep: S Cox, 39), R Higgitt, D Hill, D Lemi; E Barnes, B O'Riordan (rep: H Thomas, 78; A Clarke (rep: D Hilton, 75), S Linklater, D Crompton, G Llewellyn (rep: R Winters, 56), S Hohneck, M Salter, J El Abd (rep: A To'oala, 66), A Blowers.

Bath: J Maddock; M Stephenson, A Crockett (sin-bin, 53-63; rep: T Cheeseman, 78), S Berne, M Banahan (rep: A Higgins, 61); O Barkley, M Claassens (rep: M Baxter, 78); D Barnes (rep: D Bell, 22-69), L Mears, M Stevens, S Borthwick, P Short (rep: M Purdy, 78), A Beattie (rep: C Goodman, 56), M Lipman (rep: Goodman, 39-41), D Browne.

Referee: D Rose.

Attendance: 16,243.